:: m a y h e m b y m i s s m ::

do you have any idea how hard it is some mornings to make a glass of water without vomiting?!?

Monday, December 10, 2007

day 8 in the land of a thousand satellites for each house

freshmeat: fucking athens.
me: um...we aren't in athens.
freshmeat: it feels like it.







today we head from cairo for a 3 1/2 hour drive north to alexandria...which is much more a greco-roman city than an ancient egyptian city.

our itinerary said that we were being driven there and had the rest of the day free. the following day we would be picked up and driven to the catacombs, pompey's pillar, and the royal palace of El Montazah. the day after that, we would check out of our hotel, and be taken to see the library, the amphitheater, and the Fort of Qait-Bay.

what this translated to: driven to alexandria and taken to catacombs, pompey's pillar, the fort, and attempted to go to the library (it was closed). we were done by noon. they planned to leave us on our own for the next few days until they came to pick us up after we checked out.

uh-motherfucking-huh.

luckily our tour guide was pissed off for us and got on the phone with the company and the solution was that they would take us to the royal palace and the amphitheater the day we checked out of the hotel. so this meant that we had a full day all to ourselves with nothing planned. they suggested we take the 20-minute tour of the library.

sigh.

anyways...our first day there.


we start off at the catacombs (who doesn't like looking at where dead people were laid to rest?!). it's interesting to note that alexandria is basically sinking. the catacombs would be mostly filled with water if they weren't constantly pumping them out. also the big thing to do there is underwater sightseeing. you scuba dive to see such wonders as cleopatra's palace.

after that we saw some chickens digging through a huge pile of trash on the side of the road. on the other side of the road was an eatery...hmmm....

then off to see pompey's pillar (so named because they thought pompey was buried in or near it...with the head in the top of the column [regardless of the pillar is about 300 years after his death]).

it's a pillar....and some columns.
we didn't spend too much time there.


then off to see the Fort of Qait-Bay...built on the spot thought to be where the Lighthouse used to be (one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world). it was actually a very nice day. lots of locals were fishing...and lots of them wanted photos.

moving on.


then off to the Library...only to find that it wasn't going to open for another 3 hours (hmmm...shouldn't the company have known that before sending us there). so our guide suggests lunch (hooray!).


he takes us to this place...definitely not for tourists. the menus are all in arabic. he asks us to trust him.


more food than an entire family of 8 could ever possible have eaten was placed in front of us.

i had to be rolled out of there.

afterward we were taken to (what turned out to be crap) hotel.
got into my pajamas and watched the very first rain storm i had seen the entire time i had been in egypt.

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